Brandon Belt, who began a rehab assignment Saturday after missing a month with a fractured wrist, was activated from the disabled list and optioned to Triple-A Fresno on Thursday.

Belt earned his way back to the majors on May 26, only to get hurt in his second game back with the Giants. He was 2-for-5 with a walk in two appearances before going on the DL.

With the All-Star break coming up, it wouldn’t make any sense for the Giants to activate Belt this weekend. So, they might as well send him down and save a little cash and maybe a little service time, depending on when he’s recalled. If Belt were to get hurt again in the minors while on the major league DL, the Giants would have had to keep paying him and letting him accrue service time.

Belt, though, deserves to be in the majors, and hopefully, the Giants will go ahead and call him up 10 days from now. He’s started off 5-for-14 with a homer through five games on his rehab assignment.

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reports Thursday that the Orioles “are said to have begun fielding calls of interest” on superstar Manny Machado and “are close to the point of seriously weighing whether to trade him.”

You’d think it would be a no-brainer for the last-place O’s to flip Machado — an impending free agent — for prospects, but Heyman notes there is “still a question whether or not longtime Orioles owner Peter Angelos” will give the go-ahead. One person familiar with the situation put it a “50-50” likelihood. Another suggested that it would take a massive return, which, sure.

Machado entered play Thursday with a sensational .328/.405/.635 batting line, 15 home runs, and an MLB-leading 43 RBI in 49 games. It’d be a real shock if he’s still wearing an O’s uniform by the end of July.

Heyman reported previously that at least nine teams made aggressive plays for Machado this winter, including the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Indians, Diamondbacks, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, and Cardinals. A whole lot of those teams still make sense here in late May — maybe all of them except the White Sox.